My Allie Goes Through the Temple

On Saturday, December 12, Allie went through the temple. She had decided a couple of months back to take out her endowment. It was a great day. Allie had gone to temple preparation classes and had bought longer skirts. She was really excited to go to the temple and was well prepared. At the time, she was dating Connor Findlay and he came, too. She's a great girl and enjoyed the session.

Grandpa and Grandma Hunter, Allie, me, Kamiko and Keenan

Allie and Connor. No longer dating, but still friends.

She spent lots of time in December and January going to sessions, sealings, doing initiatories, etc. She's a light in our lives for sure.

Wow, It's Been Forever

I haven't posted since before Christmas. Shame on me. What have I been up to? Well, I've been developing another blog with my friend Annie Oswald. We launch our blog tomorrow, on March 15. We've been working on it since November when Annie hatched the idea. It's called 2 Women of a Certain Age and it's for people who aren't interested in solely looking at all the mommy bloggers that exist. It's taken a lot of time and effort. I've learned tons. This Blogger interface is very simple to use. We used Wordpress instead because serious bloggers tend to use it. It has been quite the learning experience, but we're getting there and we're ready to launch. It's taken a lot of my time and energy. I'll now try to get caught up on our happenings since mid-December.

Christmas: 

Everyone loved their pj's. Even Keenan got "Elf" ones and Kamiko is a stormtrooper from Star Wars

Mel got a selfie stick from Keenan. That was fun. Check out Keen's Spam shirt. 

Christmas PJ's

A new shirt from the Russells. I love it!

After Christmas "minus 2 days til Christmas" (Mel got creative)

Mel got a tripod

Derek and Rachel and kids came to town

Um, we woke up to lots of snow that Keenan got to shovel

Derek also got Star Wars pj's. He's Darth Vader to Kamiko's Stormtrooper

Evidently everyone thinks mom needs to relax. My Christmas haul.

The SNOW

January:

1. Kamiko goes back to BYU

2. Allie starts work on her associate's degree at SLCC

3. Mel begins her last semester as a high school student

4. I begin a new semester at BYU

5. Snow

6. High Fitness

7. Keenan gets released from Bishopric and serves in nursery

8. Unconventional visiting teaching, getting steamers at Starbucks

Me, Carrie Gibson, and Amy Christensen. Carrie taught us the ropes on my first ever visit to Starbucks

9. I work on my new blog

10. We have 5 cars in the family after Kamiko finds a cute Honda Civic

A cool quote I found on someone's fridge at a YW activity:

February:

1. Allie turns 20!

two yummy mini bundt cakes

2. Mel finds out she got accepted to BYU! She'll be a cougar in the fall.

3. Mel goes on a cruise with her high school friends, affectionately known as "The Street Youths."

Brooke, Isabelle, Levi, Meghan (front row)
Kobi, Kaleb, Mel, Makei (back row)

4. Kamiko gets a nasty cold

5. Kamiko goes on a cruise with his summer sales team at Moxie

6. I go on NO cruise

7. I keep working on the blog and cook a lot to post recipes with pictures

post cooking kitchen looks like this.

One of my many aprons. I do like this one a lot.

8. Mel goes to school dance with friends dressed as astronaut

How cute is this jetpack!?

9. Start work on our taxes. We owe money, so there's no rush to file.

10. Mel makes an amazing replica of her bedroom for interior design class.

This seriously looks EXACTLY like her bedroom, except it's usually messy

We Are Decorated for Christmas

I simplified this year. I put out fewer decorations. The girls said we needed more. I told them to get out the boxes and add more decorations. They haven't, so I guess I did ok. I love it!

My favorite spot. The white cabinet in the kitchen

Oh how I love this. Music references from my favorite movies, "Elf" and "White Christmas"

My Swedish Straw Goat

The Advent Calendar

Mel came up with this great spot to hang our stockings. Awesome!

Time for Another Hunter Girl Excursion to the Happiest Place on Earth

We got an EARLY start on Tuesday. We all got flights before or around 6:00 am and all arrived at LAX by 8:00 am. Jen picked up our rental car and we were on our way. We drove for about an hour to Anaheim. We got a parking pass for our hotel and left the car there. We walked across the street to start our fun. We bought 2 day passes with one park per day. That proved to be a great choice. We went to California Adventure on Tuesday. We got in there shortly after it opened. We were there from about 10:00 am until about 6:00 pm. We rode all the rides we love like: Midway Mania, California Screamin', Radiator Springs Racers, Swings, Tower of Terror, Little Mermaid, and Monsters, Inc. We also watched the Aladdin show. That gave us a chance to rest for a bit. Karen noted that the crowd in the show is different than the people in the park. It's kinda true that there are a lot of fat people in the show. I think when they're tired of walking, they watch the show.

Look at the cute ticket I got

Me and Kris going on Midway Mania

CarsLand

Look at that score. Pretty good for me.

Jenny and me with our light up buttons

We're in LAX. Bring the car, Jen! (Debbie, Kris, Karen, and me)

Kris won't ride Tower of Terror, but we four did!

Ready or not, here we come!

We had a great time. The weather was beautiful. It was in the low 80's. There were a lot of people, but it wasn't too bad. We just enjoyed being together. So, lines were no big deal; just time to talk and laugh and take pictures. In fact, we often noticed that right after we got in a line, the line got LONGER behind us. We had a magical touch. The best part is being able to say "I don't like that ride. I'm not going. I'll wait for you." No one forced anyone to ride and waiting was a pleasure. You got to sit and people watch and enjoy beautiful weather. Jen and I wore 50 buttons and Deb wore a 60 one. Birthdays all around! We were tired and decided to leave the park early and get pizza in our room. We ordered Round Table. Oh, I wish there were a Round Table near here. It's seriously so delicious. We ate pizza in bed and went to sleep early. We had to get up around 6:30 to get ready for day #2 in Disneyland. That would be a longer day.

Wednesday we got up and got ready. We got breakfast at our hotel. They had a nice set-up for breakfast. I got biscuits and gravy and some fruit and cottage cheese. I love biscuits and gravy. While we were all eating, a young lady, probably in her early 30's, sat at the table, put her elbows on the table and asked us how we managed to come alone, without kids. We told her she could join us. We were, after all, missing one of our sisters. We told her we would just call her Kelly. She agreed since her name is Kim. She was there with her two young kids and her mom. We told her that her day would come and it's pretty great to be there with just sisters. The first ride we went on was Peter Pan and who did we see in line? KIM! We only saw her that once.

Um, I got the 115,300. Not Kris.

Yes, it's Disneyland's birthday!

We really saw this. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and Jen jumped out of line and ran down the carriage to get this fantastic picture. Cinderella even wished Jen a happy birthday. Don't worry, Jen got back into line.

Mom selfie at Small World

Oh my gosh...the Star Wars stuff was fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alice in Wonderland Selfie

Big Thunder Mountain Selfie. Deb cracks me up in ths one.

I DID NOT ride the Matterhorn. An example of being able to ride what you want.

What a t-shirt, right?

Me and Mel at fireworks

Kris shared the fireworks with James and Allison

Chicken Strips late at night

Probably Jungle Cruise

Isn't this a great picture of Karen and Deb in front of Disney's giant Christmas tree?

Karen and Jen comfortable for evening play.

appropriate that this sign would be right outside of our room

Elder Jordan Tornow (Santiago South) and me in ToonTown

We were very productive at Disneyland. We even went back to the hotel to rest a bit, charge phones, and grab coats for the evening. We went on Buzz, Space Mountain (which has been improved for Star Wars), Thunder Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Small World (all decked out for Christmas), Peter Pan, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Storybook Land, Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Cruise, and the Monorail. I even got to meet up with one of Kamiko's mission buddies who was at the park for the day with his brother. We had a blast. It's just so fun to be together. Again, we avoided lines, even though it was pretty crowded. We used fast passes well. Jen is a champ. We stayed at the park until about 11:00 pm. The absolute highlight was the fireworks. I facetimed Mel and her face lit up. She sang along with every song. I had more fun watching her than the fireworks. I hope to return soon with the kiddos, but we have to recover financially from 2015. It was not a great year with unemployment and a cut in pay.

We noticed that we're getting old and we have conversations that old ladies have. Like conversations about mini kleenex packets and how to listen to podcasts on a phone. It is quite entertaining to listen to us.

We had time on Thursday to go visit Derek, Rachel, and kids before catching 7:00 pm flights. We had a great visit with them and went to lunch at a great place called Asian Box. Even though Rose doesn't like it. When Rachel mentioned it, she said "Not Asian Box. I hate Asian Box. Stop talking about it." Well, the adults won that battle. Rose was happy with a homemade lunch with a hot dog, cheese stick, raspberries, and peppers. We parted at Asian Box and us girls headed to Mood Fabrics. I wanted to show the girls that store. It did not disappoint. No one bought fabric, but we browsed and loved it. Then the trip was over. Jen went to the Delta terminal and Kris, Karen, Deb, and I went to Southwest. We left within 30 minutes of each other. Deb and I flew together. I slept and she read. We got in really late. Friday and Saturday I was still tired. In fact, I skipped the ward Christmas breakfast. I needed sleep more than I needed pancakes.

Listening to and recording our conversation about the cost of little packets of Kleenex. We are officially old.

Charlie Kay Hunter

Grandma Jenny giving Rosie attention

Asian Box

 An absolutely lovely bakery in Burbank

Buttons at MOOD

What a picture, huh? I love these people. Deb, Kris, Derek, Jen, Karen and me (why is my face so fat?)

Nursing my Disney hangover

Oh, and Keenan brought all this free butter home from the ward breakfast. OH JOY!